Many pieces of electronic equipment produce an audio output, receive an audio input, or both. For example, conventional or cellular telephones, walkie-talkies, compact disc players, home audio equipment, portable radio receivers, and micro-cassette recorders involve providing audible communications to a user, or involve accepting audible communications from the user. In order to reduce the effects of ambient audible noise interfering with the audible communications, or to increase the user's privacy, the user may connect an headset and/or microphone to the equipment. In this manner, the user may hear the audible communications through the headset and/or speak the audible communications into the microphone. The headset may integrate the microphone into a single unit for wearing by the user.
The headset typically connects electrically to the electrical equipment through a conductive wire. An audio signal that is an electrical representation of the audible communications travels from the electrical equipment to the headset through the conductive wire. The headset is typically an electromagnetic or piezoelectric device that responds to the current or voltage on the conductive wire, and vibrates in response to the audio signal to reproduce the audible communication.
Similarly, the microphone also typically connects electrically to the electrical equipment through a conductive wire. The microphone is typically a piezoelectric or ribbon magnetic device that responds to the audible communications from the user, and converts the audible communications into an audio signal that is an electrical representation of the audible communications. The audio signal travels from the microphone to the electrical equipment through another conductive wire.